DART Book Reccomendations

Currently reading through Why Nations Fail for a second time. I think it is a great book and would recommend it to anyone with the slightest interest in history, politics, or economics. I currently have 12000 words worth of notes on the book. I also recently read Sapiens, which was also good, but not as entertaining as I thought it would be.

My favourite fiction book is probably The Man in The High Castle, though, I seldom read fiction.

Start with the good stuff:

Atlas Shrugged

The Fountainhead

Silmarilion

The Hobbit

The Lord of the Rings

Things you should probably read as a human being:

logoi sokratikoi

Plato's republic

The bible (old and new)

Tripitaka

Mahabharata

I did read a considerable portion of the Koran but found no unique significance.

Scifi:

Everything by Issac Asimov with special focus on the robots & Bailey series and then the foundation series.

Larry Niven, but especially known space and especially Ringworld and the surrounding context of the puppeteers. Kzinti are fun but not really important to the overall epic.

Liu Cixin

I have read plenty of books in my life, but only few were actually good and worthy of reading. Other people will just recommend you boring books, but I will recommend you books that are actually fun:

1. White Fang (by Jack London)

Jack London is one of the best writers in history, and White Fang is his greatest work.

It tells a story from a perspective of an animal, all the cruelty of life, all the little joys and all the injustice.

It talks of forming and breaking bonds, of allies turning into enemies, of people being conditioned into violence.

2. Harry Potter series

If you havent read Harry Potter books, it is highly recommended that you do. They are one of the best series ever written.

3. "Native son" and "Black boy" by Richard Wright

Books about the struggle of black person in society dominated by abuse and injustice based on race.

If you want a book about debating, there is

"Win every argument" by Mehdi Hasan.

Its a new book written in 2023. It has lots of fun stuff in it.

Just got through the whole Lord of the Ribgs Trilogy.

It’s a pretty big undertaking but it’s worth it IMO.

3} 1 Star *....My first love of books, --tho poorly written and so repetitive { 180 novels printed }--- was Doc Savage.

Lonesome Dove is huge but incredibly beautiful. I think about that book at least once a week. 

It’s cliche, but Blood Meridian has the reputation it does for a reason. There’s no greater villain than The Judge. Personally I thought it was kind of a slog mixed with writing that was so good I didn’t believe it was even possible to write like that, and then the ending absolutely slapped. 

The Flashman series. Hilarious and actually great for casually learning history. 

Akenfield- this is my all time favorite non fiction book.  It’s a series of interviews with, for lack of a better word, peasants in an English village in the mid 1960s. The overwhelming sense you get reading it is a window into a vanished society and way of life, which is both good and bad. Even though it’s technically well past that timeframe listening to some of the old people talk gives you a good idea of what the past several thousand years of life constantly on the edge of a Malthusian disaster was like. 

Children of Time- extremely good hard(ish) science fiction, that was probably the last time I blew off work to read like 150 pages in one night. Didn’t hold up upon re read when I knew what would happen but I think if you go into it blind you’re in for a treat 

Only if you have a kid- The Road by Cormac McCarthy. Bleak, but beautiful ending. Think about a lot. Doesn’t hit the same if you don’t have a kid but is still good 

Me neither unless it has bee bought for me by family.

  But A Song Of Ice And Fire was something I couldn't put down.  It a shame the author (George R. R. Martin) decided to take the piss and leave is adoring fans high and dry without an ending which I believe was supposed to be titled- Wind of Winter. 

Yeah, I'm sure those books are good. The only issue I have with fiction is that it is purely for entertainment, and there are so many better ways of entertaining yourself. I would much rather play a video game or watch a movie/YT video than read. Non fiction is different because I at least feel like I'm learning, which makes the experience feel more productive.

I read the first Hunger Games  when I was 13, and I liked it. But after watching the movie for Catching Fire, I remember thinking that I would never want to read the sequel, and what do you know, I have watched all the Hunger Games movies (even the rather regrettable Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes), but I have still only read the one book. In this case, like many others, fiction books just could not compete with cinema.

Maybe you look for certain things in fiction books that allow them to stand out in the sea of other entertainment mediums?

It was hilarious to see (once again) how terrible Hollywood screen writers are as they tried vainly to finish it.

It was terrible. Certainly from half way through season 4 where it simply subverted the whole story from there on.  Its a shame because the books are a brilliant piece of work. I would have gone as far to say a masterpiece but Martin seems to have abandoned it all together leaving so many loose ends ....... and his loyal fans high and dry.  The House of The Dragon is just a pile of steaming woke shite , too.

Asenath Mason books are very cool.

Also:

"Anthology of Sorcery"